Giving Back to the Web since 2015

This book, which attempts to chronicle the colorful past and present of a very unique Denver building, was well-researched and enjoyable to read. I learned quite a bit about the house, through its story, the history of Denver as well.

The descriptions of some of the oddly shaped rooms, and the stories about the dogs and the mirror did give me chills. It also definitely made me want to visit the house sometime so I can experience it all for myself.

However, I would say my critique of the book lies with its heavy reliance on the author’s and other people’s “feelings” about the house and how the spiritual energy did things to their bodies. I actually believe in ghosts because I have seen them and felt some energy similar to what was described in the book. Although, when building a case for a haunting, relying on these forms of “evidence” is simply not convincing, especially since the ghost hunters with the experience and the equipment came back with results suggesting the property is not actively haunted.

The main “power” I think the structure has is its ability to weave a spell over people, to pique their interest, and to capture their hearts. Many people have dedicated a lot of time and effort into preserving the site as well as researching it and investigating it. It’s obviously a unique place that matters to a lot of people, and I respect that.

This is an exceptional book about an exceptional woman, a master painter who manages to survive in a man’s world and perfect her craft. Beautifully written in gut-wrenching verse. I couldn’t put it down.

Those of us who still struggle under the yoke of the patriarchy and deal with every-day misogyny will find strength in Artemisia’s character and determination. I have felt her rage and I know many other women who have as well. This is an important book for YA feminism, but for those of you out there who are teachers, please find a way to get male students to read this book.

As was mentioned at ALAN this year, and I wish I could credit which author said it — “Rape books aren’t just for girls.” If we want to change rape culture we need to get this book in as many hands as possible regardless of gender.

I read the author’s notes about this book, about the struggle to bring Artemisia’s story to light all these years after she died, and I’m very grateful that she was finally able to find a platform to share this with the world.

I’ve been a Stephen King fan since I was twelve years old and hiding his books under my bed because I wasn’t sure my parents would approve. I can’t say I’ve read all of his books, but I’ve read all the classics like “The Shining” and “Misery” etc.

I’m also a writer who doesn’t stick to one genre, so I enjoy that SK has a lot of different kinds of books and stories, but all with his signature voice and threads that tie the universes together.

This collection was a fun read for sure. It’ll take you to a lot of different places, make you laugh and cry and be scared and grossed out, so strap in for a good time.

“Mile 81” was classic King, but to a point where it became self-referential, which was very cheeky but also annoying. But I guess when you’re one of the world’s most popular authors you can get away with that stuff! I loved it anyway.

“The Dune” was an interesting one with a fun twist. “UR” was also thought-provoking and very fun. The best part of King’s work to me is the characters, and there are many to love and hate in the collection. “Mortality” was also very thought provoking and makes you think about the ripple effect of violence. “Blockade Billy” was also highly enjoyable and I would consider using it in a sports lit class.

There are a couple of down points in the collection that I didn’t care for, specifically “Herman Wouk is Still Alive.” I found King’s portrayal of low SES women to be two dimensional and bourgeois in way that borderline offended me. This story is actually the whole reason why I gave this four stars instead of five.

By far, however, “Bad Little Kid” was my all-time favorite. It had some of the same flavors as “IT” so if that’s one of your King favorites, I think you’ll like that story. “Obits” was also on fire. I love how King makes you examine your values and there isn’t always a clear hero in a story. He can also break your heart, like with “Summer Thunder.”

Superfans will definitely love this collection. If you’re brand new to SK, I wouldn’t start here — go back and hit the classics and then come on over when you’ve read “IT” and “The Shining” and maybe like “Pet Sematary” too. See you there!

My husband is really cool. Okay, so you’re thinking… what exactly does that have to do with this book? Okay, well, he planned a surprise trip out west for our anniversary, and he bought me a book for every place where we would be staying. Our first stop was Broken Bow, Nebraska. You folks are all readers, right? So you know why my dude’s a keeper.

This book was pretty good, though I was reading it as an adult and obviously it’s aimed at upper elementary/middle grade readers. I’m a teacher, so I was thinking about which of my students would enjoy it.

I’d say that I’ve read better YA and Middle Grade books. There was a sprinkling of modern language and turns of phrase that distracted me from the time period in which the story takes place.

As a teacher, I definitely felt for the main character as she struggled to take her father’s place and do her job with no support from the community, no textbooks, and a garbage classroom. A lot of teachers this very second are in a similar situation! I couldn’t help but put myself in Sarah Jane’s shoes. The snowstorm element brought up good memories of reading “The Long Winter” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. But then I thought, maybe I should just re-read “The Long Winter.”

Some very good descriptions. I loved how the wind was personified in the story, and when I got to Broken Bow, yeah, the wind feels like it’s out to get you!

The story could have done a little more with the Native Americans. The characters were operating under racist misinformation that was disproven, but it wasn’t something that was lingered on or developed.

On the other hand, I really felt like there was something romantic between the landlady and the priest that was never developed. I thought that was a cool subplot, especially because the MC was too young to really get what was going on, but nothing came of it, which wasn’t very rewarding for people who bother to pay attention to subtext.

Might be worth adding to your classroom library, as I think it would definitely interest some readers.

I received this book in my box when I attended the AERA conference two years ago. Reading it embarrassed me, because I had never heard of Jim Thorpe, and everyone should have heard of Jim Thorpe. He was a one-of-a-kind athlete, a borderline demigod from a mythological world. Admittedly, I am not a sports fan really of any kind (I’m an indoor cat) but what I appreciated about this book was that it has many audiences who might want to read it.

As an educator, I this book would appeal to reluctant readers who happen to be football fans. Then, they would inadvertently learn about the cultural erasure of Native Americans around the turn of the century. Or, if you’re like me, the football came as a secondary interest, and the stories about the schools and what the children suffered were compelling and made me feel outraged.

This book has a great, clean layout, with great pictures and a look that will appeal to many readers of various interests and levels. Thinking about my readers who struggle, my only issue is that it does skip around in the timeline a bit, which is artistic and cool to confident readers and confusing to others. Also it really didn’t talk much about his later years, and I wanted to read about how a town allegedly offered to rename their town if the family agreed to bury Jim there.

All in all, a good read, and a must for your secondary classroom library.

As a semi-professional creepy person and recovering goth, this was the perfect book for me! It was a Christmas gift from my mom, who has always been my cemetery buddy and BFF in morbidity.

I travel a lot, and I’m always looking for a good cemetery to visit that has connections to the history of the locations I visit. I’ve actually been to several of the cemeteries on the list in the USA and Europe, and it would be a serious dream to visit them all. I’ve loved many cemeteries for many different reasons, but if was forced to choose an all-time favorite, it would probably be Pére Lachaise, which seems to be everyone else’s favorite, too. I mean, it’s amazing to read about how many cemetery planners used PC as an inspiration for their own boneyards. It was really cool to read about how and why the cemeteries were planned and what the creators were thinking during the design process.

The pictures in the book are gorgeous. I don’t keep many books once I’ve read them, because I live in a tiny condo where space is at a premium, but I can promise you I’m keeping this one. In fact, it is going on a road trip with my family and I this summer as we drive out to New England. One I know for sure we’ll be visiting (again) is the cemetery in New Haven, CT. I’ve been before and I can’t wait to go again and walk under the Egyptian gate!

If you’re a creepo cemetery wanderer like me, this is the book for you. I would recommend you pair this with “Stories in Stone” by Douglas Keister.

My one criticism of this book is that it focuses on a very Western-centric, Anglo view of history and importance. I figured in the USA section there would be more about Native American sacred places, or in other countries, showing off burial sites from native peoples. There were some, but there was also a great silence, which speaks instead, perhaps, to the disappearance of these sites or that they are not being cared for and have been erased, as the colonizers have always wanted to do with the culture of those they colonize.

I’m potty training my daughter, and we had an abundance of accidents yesterday. See, we’re doing this “newfangled” potty training method where you spend like three days at home letting the kid run around naked and putting them on the potty when they start to go. Step two is going about your normal life, but kiddo is wearing pants commando. Then, allegedly, you are allowed to put them in underwear when they are consistent with the potty habit. Yeah, we’re not there yet.

On top of that, I (or SOMEONE in the house, ahem, it doesn’t HAVE to be me every time, just saying) forgot to change the cat litter on Wednesday, and possibly the Sunday before that. So, in rebellion, our three cats spent yesterday while we were out leaving various land mines scattered throughout the house. So I got to clean those up, as well as change the litter and scrub out the box, etc.

By 8pm, I threw up my many-times-washed hands and cried, “I’M SICK OF POOP! NO MORE POOP FOR ME TODAY, OKAY?”

“I get it,” said my husband.

Thank God Alyssa’s last poop of the day was in her nighttime diaper.

So, I’m really, really sick of seeing and smelling and cleaning up poop. HOWEVER, my online buddy Elizabeth tagged me in a meme this morning, and I’ve been laughing about it on and off since 6am:

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahasdhjfkaslkdfa

Full disclosure: I am 34 years old. And I’m giggling right now, yet again, looking at this. Which, I’m sure many of you are thinking, is too old to find this kind of thing funny.

Of course as kids everyone thinks poop, pee, farts, and butts are hilarious. One of the best middle grade novels I’ve ever read is The Day My Butt Went Psycho. You may remember some playground gems that included chants like “Milk milk lemonade, ’round the corner fudge is made, stick your finger up the hole, what comes out, a tootsie roll.” Some of my friends from childhood and I actually co-wrote songs about poop. Here are the lyrics to one of our masterpieces:

Poop potty pee

Oh poop poop poop

Poop potty pee

Oh poop poop poop

Poop potty pee

Oh poop poop poop

POOP! POTTY! PEE!

If you made it through this post so far without laughing, congratulations. You are a smarter and more sophisticated person than me. But you may also be dead inside, just saying.

I have a coworker who literally laughs every time I say “duty.” She’s older than me, and always feels like she has to explain herself or apologize for having a middle school style sense of humor. Obviously, I’m not going to judge her, because I think it’s funny too. Another of my coworkers and I were talking about how we both had diarrhea over the weekend (I love my job) and we started messaging each other refrains from the famous Diarrhea Song, which, by the way, has its own official website. This one was our favorite:

When you lie down for siesta
and your ass has a fiesta…

Diarrhea (toot toot) diarrhea

So now we say things like, “I ate at Red Lobster this weekend and my ass had a fiesta” or “I’m home with an ass fiesta.”

She kept asking me, “Is there something wrong with us that we think this is funny?”

Well, I declare here and now before the whole internet, that if thinking the Diarrhea Song is funny is wrong, thenI don’t want to be right!

I just don’t think anyone should be in a hurry to grow up so much. There’s a universal quality to toilet humor. We all have to do it. Kim Kardashian poops. Many of us have to clean it up (not Kim, she can pay someone to do that, which is why she sucks). If you can’t find the humor in poop then all you’re left with is… shit.

Feel free to judge me. I sorta do hate myself a bit for enjoying toilet humor. I know what sophisticated people I respect would say about me. But I can’t live a lie, either.

There is a time and a place for everything. There is a time to sow, a time to reap, a time to use intellectual wit and dry, complex humor, and a time to laugh at farts.

And that time is NOW. Enjoy one of my favorite songs from Bob’s Burgers.

We’re in that weird time in between Christmas and New Years where, traditionally, I have either played whatever video game I got for Christmas for several days straight, or have done other activities all while hating myself for being fat and unproductive. There’s this great Sylvia Plath quote from The Bell Jar.

“I felt overstuffed and dull and disappointed, the way I always do the day after Christmas, as if whatever it was that the pine boughs and the candles and the silver and gilt-ribboned presents and the birch-log fires and the Christmas turkey and the carols at the pianos promised never came to pass.”

If the typical Christmas celebrations are part of your life/heritage, then you probably know what Sylvia and I are talking about. Depending on your experience, there can be something about the avarice and gluttony of Christmas that can make you hate yourself pretty much a lot. I know there are a lot of mental health triggers around Christmas, including managing expectations, remembering what things were like as a kid, etc. Typically I usually wrap myself up in the warm arms of a video game and then hate myself for wasting time, or hate myself for eating too much and being out of shape. This all counts down to when I try to do a New Years Resolution and inevitably fail.

Typical me post-Christmas

But… not this year, you guys.

I’m not sure exactly what makes something the best or worst Christmas ever, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt so good exiting a Christmas as I do this year.

I mean, it can’t hurt that this was a really amazing Christmas. Tons of people were able to make it, including the entire Carl extended family minus Uncle John, who is living the dream on an island (literally, so I get it why he didn’t come back). Wait, can we back up to Christmas Eve Morning, when it SNOWED??? IT SNOWED A BEAUTIFUL SNOW! It hadn’t snowed more than few flakes up until that point. Yeah, the roads were a little dicey, but that didn’t stop us. Okay, it nearly killed my brother and sister-in-law, but they made it just fine, all right?

My daughter was just in love with the snow. That morning she was going crazy running through it to leave tracks with her rolling suitcase.

Alyssa and Princess Poppy enjoy the Winter Wonderland

Though it was admittedly a tamer White Elephant year than previous years (no Trump and Hillary masks or bail bonds swag this time) I managed to get rid of some stuff I didn’t want (okay, and get some stuff I didn’t want, but whatever) and as they say, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. The best part of the eve was just having everyone able to make it, with my cousins coming all the way from NYC and Seattle.

Of course we had tons of awesome FOOD both days. We ate salmon primavera, chilles rellenos, oysters, pork roast, orange duck, and SO MUCH CHEESE. Also we had so many presents we had to start on Christmas Eve and periodically start and stop so we could get meals in. I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW it’s not about the stuff, but I must not have pampered myself much lately because I was like crying with happiness because I got the kinds of things that were very much about self care and making me feel good about me.

I think I got a total of 8 bath bombs, a bunch of skincare products, and a fitness tracker and wireless headphones to encourage me to exercise. And things to make me feel pretty like clothes and jewelry. All of that just makes me excited about… being me and enjoying being me, which is not something that I often allow myself.

So I just got my fitness tracker set up today, and got all my healthy apps and stuff going. Check out the news/updates section of ameliakibbie.com to read about my thoughts on New Years Resolutions and all that crap.

It was great. Nobody was sick. Nobody got in a fight or even a mild disagreement. It snowed and everyone was happy.

I’m all set to have a great few days off… even though I’ll be spending most of it potty training (we already had poop and pee on the floor today! WHEEEEEE!). Though I have to admit, trying to clear all of the Christmas music out of my personalized stations on Youtube Red and Pandora is getting pretty damn annoying…

Anyway, to anyone reading this, I hope these dark solar days are instead filled with good times of whatever sort you enjoy the most.

Oh man. I really love Anne Rice. Her work was crucial to my development as a person and a writer. I honestly think she taught me how to see the world differently. The vampires often comment about the beauty of every day things and people in life and I really want to see the world that way. The way she used to write about historical time periods brought them to life in a way I could only ever wish to do with my own writing. So I give her %1000 credit for that with her body of work.

I read Interview, Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Body Thief, Mummy, and the Mayfair Witches trilogy, as well as Feast of All Saints, and I loved all of them. I then decided that I needed to branch out and become a person who reads more widely… plus I also started college so I didn’t have time to read a lot. I just returned to Anne this year when my husband bought me this book thinking I had been keeping up with the series which I obviously haven’t.

There is a nice glossary in the back to help those of us who hadn’t read the whole thing, etc, so that’s not the problem with this book (besides, I understand I hadn’t been keeping up with the series).

The problem is that it’s just… like, not all that good of a book.

I’m not okay with how she completely changed the entire universe and the origin story of the vampires with this. I imagine a lot of us out there are not super fond of it. Honestly, it reminds me of something DC comics would do in the ’80s.

Not only that, I feel like Anne’s style has changed. I get it, we all change over time, and changing your style and how you write is something that happens to all writers, especially the good ones, because the idea is that you improve as you learn more about the craft and about the world. But I was just not down with it — sorry. I feel like she’s lost that overwrought, too many adverbs/adjectives, too much lush detail style that I actually really love. It felt stripped down, and like for God’s sake it was weird that everybody had an iPhone.

Really though, it’s the stripped-down writing style that I didn’t like. I miss the world-building description that helped you visualize these incredible things and people and locations and time periods. This book, it felt like a first draft. That she wrote during NaNoWriMo.

I will always and forever love Anne and her characters. I just think I’m done reading the new books. I’ll go back and fill in what I missed the first time through. If you’re a superfan and you’re with Anne until the wheels fall off, by all means read this book. If you are not, then don’t.

Categories

Meta

Blog Stats

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,422 other followers

I Know What I Know

I'm a writer, a mother, and a middle grade educator. I started this blog to produce content for the web instead of just ingesting it. I know what I know, so I want to share it with you. Writing - education - travel - housfrau/domestic demigoddess - gaming - nerdery - musings